1st Night is a classy screwball comedy, so gorgeously lensed and very British, we almost forget just how silly the material might be had the same premise been applied to another kind of performance. A light and occasionally fun date movie, we follow a group of upcoming group of opera stars pulled from various locations to the country estate of Adam (Richard E. Grant), a rich industrialist who stages an outdoor production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte.
A subplot inspired by the opera has two men waging they can bed Nicoletta (Mia Maestro) prior to opening night. That’s not all that’s going on here, as activities also include the seduction of the sheltered groundskeeper, Eric (Jake Walker) by one of the emotionally jaded stars of the performance, Debora (Susannah Fielding).
1st Night bursts at the seams, including screwball moments with Phillip (Oliver Dimsdale), the show’s director. He’s a repressed homosexual seduced by a cast member and later caught in the act by his girlfriend. The film’s look behind the scenes is rather bland, as are the motivations behind the production; Adam is in love with the production’s maestro Celia (Sarah Brightman). Staging the production is another fantasy of his, surrounding himself with up and coming talent for the chance to play a dream role in the production, the film never quite explores the madness behind such a decision, instead focusing on the behind the scenes lives of the cast.
The cast, made up of mostly young, good-looking upcoming stars is really just that. We never quite see much dimension to these characters and they are never truly fleshed out to work. Perhaps I arrived to this material with the disadvantage of not being an Opera aficionado, however I’d argue for the film to do what it attempts to pull off ought to work for the uninitiated, a consideration that screenplay by Christopher Menaul and Jeremy Sams should have made.
1st Night is not without redeeming qualities: it’s opening, a disjoined series of auditions, throws us in the deep end with little explanation. The film and performers never come alive until it is about performance and the behind the scenes material that comprises much of the film’s middle act never elevates beyond the level we’ve seen in perhaps a film like Step Up. The cast is dysfunctional and so forth, but much of the material is not that memorable.
1st Night is perhaps more of a fancy light snack — it’s never boring, yet its also not terribly engaging either.
This film is currently in select theaters and available on VOD.